Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 75 years ago

Spokane drivers and pedestrians were worried about two separate traffic menaces in 1935.

The first was the prospect that the city’s arterial speed limit would soon be raised to the shocking speed of … 25 miles per hour.

A Spokane postman and Lidgerwood neighborhood leader called the proposed 25 mph limit “a menace to life, limb and the future welfare of the city.”

The city was pondering the increase to put the city in compliance with federal standards.

“What is going to be the end of this uncurbed speed craze?” asked the Lidgerwood man.

The existing limit: 15 mph.

The other issue: car radios. The Spokesman-Review had recently run a front-page story about whether car radios were a dangerous distraction.

Some cities (not yet Spokane) were considering fining drivers who were “wending the city’s traffic maze to the lilt of ‘The Blue Danube’ waltz or ‘Minnie the Moocher.’ ”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1970: Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was wounded at the Manila airport by a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest. … 1978: San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and City Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death inside City Hall by former supervisor Dan White.